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May 21 2009

Shooting RAW with the D5000 – No So Fast

Posted by jeff in Nikon

The other day I told you that I had just received my new Nikon D5000 right before I went on my fishing trip.  I thought it would be nice to take it with me to grab some shots while I was at the lake.  Being the RAW enthusiast that I am, the first thing I did was change my shooting mode from JPEG to RAW and then started taking pictures.  Later that day I sat down with my laptop to download some of the images I took and so naturally I opened up Lightroom so I could start importing them from my SD card.  That’s when I found out that Lightroom didn’t recognize the image files.  I checked my Lightroom version and found that I was only running version 2.2 so I downloaded the latest update and tried again.  Once again, no can do.  I then tried the latest version of Photoshop Camera RAW.  Once again, no luck.  After a little checking on the Adobe site I found that the D5000 is not yet supported.  Okay, no Lightroom so what about the Nikon software that came with the camera… Oops, left that at home.  A quick visit to the Nikon USA website and I had what I thought were the latest versions of ViewNX and Capture 4 downloaded and installed.  When I opened the software I was able to look at my RAW images but I couldn’t do anything with them.  I finally gave up and switched the camera to JPEG for the rest of the trip.

When I returned home, I grabbed the software that was included with my camera and loaded the latest versions of View and CaptureNX.  Now I could look at my RAW images but I still couldn’t work with them.  I ended up having to export them as JPEG files so I could import them into Lightroom.  The one piece of software hat I didn’t load was the trial version of Capture NX2.  I actually own this piece of software and just need to update it to work with the new files but the frustrating thing is that there is no way to actually process the RAW files with any of the included software.  The only option is to purchase Capture NX2 or wait for Adobe to update Camera Raw.  This isn’t a big deal for me since I already own these products but having to spend $120 to get better images is a little insulting, especially after plunking down $850 for the camera. Unlike Canon, who includes RAW processing software with their cameras, Nikon still feels the need to grab a few extra bucks from their customers who want to get the most from their cameras.

What would be great would be a slightly watered down version of NX2 included with the camera that would at least give some more selective ability to process RAW images without having to dig deeper in the pocketbook.  Until that time I will patiently await the Lightroom 2.4 update.

Related posts:

  1. Buying a New Camera? Better Check Your Version of Photoshop
  2. Shooting Time-Lapse with the Nikon D5000
  3. Shooting for Black and White
  4. New Nikon for dSLR Video Shooters – The D5000
  5. Nikon D5000: From Snapshots to Great Shots

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 12:06 am and is filed under Nikon. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

15 Responses to “Shooting RAW with the D5000 – No So Fast”
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  1. Darrin says:
    May 21, 2009 at 7:05 am

    Jeff,

    Not sure about the Mac version, but on a PC with ViewNX 1.3 I can do some NEF processing (exposure comp., white balance, Picture Control, sharpness, contrast, brightness, highlight/shadow protection, D-Lighting, color booster and axial color aberration). I have D40 NEFs, but I would expect D5000 NEFs to work as well (if not, that’s really weird).

    Reply
  2. Jeff Klofft says:
    May 21, 2009 at 7:05 am

    I’m an NX user so I may be wrong about this but I believe you can make some simple changes to the RAWs in ViewNX.

    Reply
  3. Steve says:
    May 21, 2009 at 9:36 am

    Jeff,

    I have to say that I am very disappointed in this very amateur blog entry. You just proved the point of how the internet allows anyone with a blog or website to offer up unsubstantiated opinions without ever checking the facts before doing so. It’s too bad that you just lowered yourself to the rest of that group.

    Nikon View NX supports the following editing options for a D5000 NEF file…

    1. Exposure Compensation
    2. White Balance adjustment with Fine tune and Tint adjustments as well
    3. Picture Control adjustment with full Picture Control Utility
    4. Sharpness
    5. Contrast
    6. Brightness
    7. Highlight Protection
    8. Shadow Protection
    9. D-Lighting Adjustment
    10. Color Booster
    11. Axial Color Aberration Control

    I’d say that’s a pretty impressive list of control from a D5000 RAW file for a free program that comes in the box. Here’s what really cheapened your post… “Unlike Canon, who includes RAW processing software with their cameras, Nikon still feels the need to grab a few extra bucks from their customers who want to get the most from their cameras.”

    The View NX software just isn’t listed as a “RAW processing software” but it probably has most of the capabilities of the “free” Canon software. (And nothing is ever free either). Capture NX2 is a far superior program to the included Canon software which is why it is an optional purchase.

    So, the next time you post something like this do your homework first… offer facts to support your opinions.

    Reply
  4. Stu says:
    May 21, 2009 at 9:58 am

    I think the work around until camera raw is updated, is to use Adobe DNG Converter to convert the RAW files to DNG and then you can open them with the version of camera raw you have

    Reply
  5. Jon Lawrence says:
    May 21, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    Hey Jeff,

    I know exactly what you mean and did the same thing…except I was the one that didn’t try and check the pictures before the trip and didn’t take my laptop with me. Being a RAW enthusiast myself I switched the camera to raw immediately, went on my trip…and am now stuck with NEF’s that I can’t do anything with until Adobe updates their software. I tried the Nikon software before and didn’t like it, so I refuse to shell out the money again for their software to use until Lightroom updates to 2.4 So when the time hits that Lightroom updates, I already have about 20gigs of raw’s to convert to dng and process. That will be a long day, but then, I know I won’t have to worry about it again. Though, admittedly, it is still quite frusting to shoot in RAW’s an not be able to touch them unless I convert them in-camera to JPG. This is what we get for getting brand new camera’s. Should have gone with the D90. lol

    Reply
  6. NS says:
    May 21, 2009 at 5:13 pm

    What I don’t get is why the D5000 isn’t supported but the D90 is. They are essentially the same camera with a couple physical changes. I don’t get why the RAW file should be any different.

    Reply
  7. Ron says:
    May 22, 2009 at 5:18 am

    Adobe Labs has just released Camera RAW 5.4 release candidate with support for the Nikon D-5000
    http://www.cameratown.com/news/news.cfm?id=7711

    Reply
  8. Geoff says:
    May 27, 2009 at 10:37 am

    I am with Stu about the DNG file format.
    I use it exclusively. I have my files brought into Lightroom turning my Canon RAW files into DNG’s on import.
    It is a space saver and I have yet to see a quality difference, but most importantly, I do not have to buy new software to handle the 5D mkII files. The same should apply to the newest Nikon files.

    Reply
  9. Darin says:
    May 30, 2009 at 3:35 am

    “Nikon still feels the need to grab a few extra bucks from their customers who want to get the most from their cameras.”

    Jeff, you were correct with this comment and it should be reinstated. (Of course this comment also applies to the majority of corporations like the others you mentioned in your post: Canon and Adobe.)

    Steve, I must say you and I have very different ideas of what is impressive. To me, ViewNX is a complete waste of time and system resources.

    While doing my ‘homework’, when I viewed a picture in RAW mode with ViewNX, it quickly swallowed 1.05 Gb of RAM and procceed to freeze temporarily on any zoom or parameter change. Unacceptable. What is also disappointing is that Nikon doesn’t offer any support for x64 OSes. The NEF codec, at minimum, should come in a x64 variant. Side note: the one thing i was pleased to see was Nikon’s attempt at making ViewNX a multi-threaded program, even if it was a half-baked implementation.

    Stu and Geoff, the DNG Converter is a wonderful idea but (as of version 5.2.0.65) it is incapable of proccessing the RAW files from the D5000.

    To further my frustration, I own Photoshop CS3, which apparently Adobe will not be updating to support the D5000. All CS3 owners are SOL unless they upgrade to CS4 or find some other means. I would love to hear any useful suggestions on some other alternatives…

    Reply
  10. Jose Matutina says:
    August 15, 2009 at 12:09 am

    I wished I read this before taking pictures with RAW on my new D5000. I had the exact problem that you have. I can view my shots on View NX but cannot load them on Capture NX or Photoshop. I needed to convert them first to JPEG so I can work on them, which defeats the purpose of shooting RAW in the first place.

    Reply
  11. Iqbal says:
    October 13, 2009 at 1:48 pm

    Hi All, I had the same issue. In my enthusiasm to work with RAW/NEF formats, I shot a number of pictures in those formats and ended up not being able to work with them on ViewNX or CS3. Now, all the shooting did not go waste, as the D5000 has an in camera NEF processor. Meaning, you can do the touch up, though slow, painful and not really very accurate, on the camera and then same it to a jpeg. Workaround, but not the best.
    Iqbal.

    Reply
  12. James Conner says:
    December 21, 2009 at 5:24 am

    I have a D5000, a Mac, and Photoshop CS3 Extended running on a G4. Since I’m not yet in a position to upgrade to an Intel Mac, I had to find a workaround so that I could process my images in Photoshop. I found several:

    (1) Version 5.6x of Adobe’s DNG converter can handle the D5000′s NEF format and convert it to ACR 4.6 compatible DNG. The quality of the conversion leaves something to be desired.

    (2) RAW Developer, by http://www.iridentdigital.com, has an excellent profile for the D5000, and seems to produce higher resolution and a sharper image than Adobe’s DNG converter.

    (4) The open source freeware application, GIMP, con open and convert D5000 NEF files, but getting a satisfactory conversion requires a high level of skill. And the saved file will be 8 bits per channel.

    (5) Graphic Converter can open the D5000′s NEF files. Again, the conversion is generic and outstanding results require great skill.

    I recommend converting to DNG via Adobe’s free software, or purchasing RAW Developer and using it. RAW Developer’s interface is not as friendly as ACR’s, but it’s reasonably straightforward. And the application offers excellent sharpening and noise reduction options. RAW Developer is as good as ACR and is updated frequently.

    Reply
  13. tyrelle says:
    August 16, 2010 at 10:12 am

    I have a d500 which i just purchased recently. i’ve tried to use capture nx to process my nef files, but it doesn’t work. i’ve tried in elements 7 and nothing. but paintshop photo pro x3 opens and processes them.

    Reply
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